Weekly Progress - MORE SNOW!

We did get the winter storm they predicted last week, and it was about as good as Oklahoma gets.

{Yeah wind, blast that tree!}

We lost power overnight, so I shoveled myself to the car to check Facebook. Luckily it was back by 10 am....other friends out here were not as lucky!

{Of course I had to make french toast! I had bread, eggs, and milk!}

Of course, my dear husband decided that the middle of a snowstorm was the best time to tell me we were moving back to Spokane, WA. You know, the place that got something close to 100" of snow the last winter we were there.

He's buying me a snowblower for my birthday.

Anyway... I waited until the end of the month to get anything significant done on my sewing projects... Good thing for those monthly link-ups to keep me moving! So while it looks like I did a lot this week, really, most of the stuff was near completion and I just finished it off.

{Finished!} Layer Cake Snowballs - post here.

{Finished!} Starburst Pillow - I'm really glad I went with a pillow instead of a quilt. I know it wouldn't have gotten done if I tried for a whole quilt. The quilting is based on Karamat's Mini-Swoon Swap - I wanted to practice before tackling my Swoon!

{BOM} I started putting together the Sampler, but quickly ran out of the black. Go figure - you need a lot of that!

 {Design Wall} All the pink blocks for Boardwalk. It will not look this pink! I ironed and started cutting the teal fat quarters today.


{Rainbow Scrap Challenge} These have been finishing up throughout the month as little leaders/enders. March is orange, which will be hard - I don't have a lot of it.

My new Flirt project is mostly cut out and strip sets are forming. And look - it's the ONLY thing on the cutting table!

I also made a set of Cat Tails. But I don't remember which set it was. One of these...

Oh, and I did this. Yes, the medal is bigger than my hand. Yes, I beat my Tulsa time. Yes, hills make your butt hurt. A LOT.

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} I took a deep breath and plunged into the horrors of the scrap box, where bags of old projects are sent to never be sorted. Stuff I want to keep together are now boxed and labeled. And I have a bigger pile of scraps to re-sort into colors. {Still not enough orange!}

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times

BOMs Away Monday @ What A Hoot

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story

End of Month Report - February

Man, this short month went a bit too fast! Who ever decided that February should get shortchanged? Darn you, Caesar! What was so wrong about making January, February, and March all 30-day months?

Family: We got orders! Surprisingly early! Back to Fairchild AFB, WA. There are a lot of mixed feelings about this...but at least the place makes us happy. We'll move sometime this summer - school doesn't start until after Labor Day {and Oklahoma gets out before Memorial Day} so we have a lot of time to work with.

Adoption: Still waiting to hear the revised timeline and requirements...and trying not to worry. I'm hoping we know before we schedule the move - obviously, it would be nice to be settled before the Little Man comes home.

Running: Little Rock Half is this weekend, and I feel insanely prepared. At some point, full marathon training stopped being tiring and started being, "oh, no biggie, I have a 2:30 long run this weekend. AND I WILL DO IT IN 2:20!!"

Sewing: I planned, this month, to... 

Quilt Star Wall Hanging and Layer Cake Snowballs

Ah, no. Finished Snowballs under the wire {post will be up tomorrow} but Star isn't even basted.

Pick 16 Saturday Sampler blocks to set on point and do that

Yes! Not only that, but all the on point blocks are sashed and I started putting together the other blocks. And then I ran out of fabric. Man, when you have a lot of negative space, you need a LOT of that fabric!

 
Figure out what I'm doing with Boardwalk and make at least ten blocks

Uh, sure. If you count slicing the setting pieces as "making blocks."

 
Keep up with one Cat Tails block each week

Yes, I'm up to nine blocks. And out of space on the design wall, again! Four more to go...I think. I should really come up with a plan...

And then also...

Starburst Pillow - I love it! I'm really glad I decided to make it pillow-size. Now I can enjoy it instead of letting it linger on the to-be-quilted pile.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge - ten cute little purple blocks!

And then there's my NewFO. I did not plan on a NewFO this month. I blame my mother-in-law - she ordered me quilt magazine subscriptions for  Christmas. I couldn't resist making this one in Flirt!

As for March...it's got Spring Break and two half marathons, so I'll try not to be overly ambitious.

1. Keep up with Cat Tails - I should finish the cat blocks and have them ready to set in April.

2. Quilt Star Wall Hanging, Frolicking Pinwheels, and Skorca. {I know, three. But two are small and should not take that long! And I know I'm going to keep putting Skorca off.}

3. Make a new Creeper pillow for the Dude's birthday. {The first one went to a friend. The second will be properly pixelated.}

4. Make at least half of the fourteen remaining blocks for Boardwalk. Luckily, they're all blue/teal, so the pink will be balanced.

Linked:

Nothing But UFOs
A Year of Finishes
Getting It Done
Year of the Finished Project
Just Three

Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts
NewFO Challenge @ Cat Patches 
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Weekly Progress - SNOW!

First a little bit of snow - about 3" that canceled school. 

{Lumps the Snowman}

And now, the big storm. Or not. I'm writing this Sunday night and we still have no idea if it will be snow or rain. School has already been canceled, so we'll see! At least I'm over the sinus crud, so I can enjoy...shoveling.

And now that it's morning, it's still unsure if it's going to be snow or rain! I watched it go from rain to sleet to snow to sleet to rain all over the course of thirty minutes.

{Design Wall/BOM} Saturday Sampler, at the point in which it will no longer fit on the wall. I'm {fairly} confident in my math and starting the work to pull it together. I should have an empty design wall by the end of the week!

I realized February is almost over...with no UFOs started finished. Oops. So I got out Layer Cake Snowballs and got started. 

{This isn't comfortable, but it's annoying, so the cat continues.}

So far, I echoed the lines of the blocks. I think it needs more...but I don't know what. I don't particularly want to outline all the corners because I don't want to bury all those threads!

Then I used the {perfectly} leftover batting to baste the Starburst pillow cover. Only made it through three lines before running out of thread, though...and probably won't be running to Hobby Lobby today!

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} Green box is organized! And I don't think there's a bit of the Pantone Emerald in it.

Next I'm going to tackle the random scrap/project box. That should take a couple weeks.

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times 

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot 

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Weekly Progress - the Creeping Crud

Yesterday was a day off, so I forgot all about posting. It doesn't help that my husband and I both have the basic winter-y sinus crud, so I barely got anything done this week. So this will be short and sweet before my next nap. I hate being sick!

{Finished} Triple Zip Pouch

{Design Wall/BOM} I finally decided to trust my math {after triple checking it 4x} and started setting Saturday Sampler. I need to pick four more from the top to set on point - there's also four in progress by the sewing machine.

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} I finished organizing the Christmas scrap bin, including yardage and fat quarter sets. It's ready to {sadly} be packed away until after the move.

I then pulled out my solids bin and fished out any black that could be used for the Sampler, then moved to the green scrap bin for organizing. There's another Creeper pillow in my future.

So...really slacking on the UFOs this month. At least I haven't added anything to the to-be-quilted pile other than the Starburst pillow, which is ready to quilt once I can sit up longer than five minutes.

Linked:

Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces

Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times 

BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot 

WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced

Weekly Progress - Giveway Winner!

Last week was busier than normal, for no real reason. Just a lot of other stuff that kept me from the sewing room. So not much progress in there.

But first, a winner!

Which is SewCindy! Congrats, I shot you an email!

{BOM/Design Wall} No change on Saturday Sampler. I have a good sketch and hopefully good math on the layout, and another 3.5 yards of the black to start setting it. Once I double check my math again.

{Cat Tails} Block #7!

{Boardwalk} The centers of the three pink blocks are done.

{Starburst Quilt Along} Block is finished, backing is prepped, and I've even decided how I'm going to quilt it!

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} Now this I actually have been working on daily! I decided to tackle the Christmas scrap box, so it could be fully organized and packed up for our house sale. And it is taking the full fifteen minutes every day. Please, no one let me buy any Christmas fabric this year. I don't care how cute Sandy Gervais' line is going to be.

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times 
BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot 
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Starburst Quilt Along @ Happy Quilting

Weekly Progress - Super Bowl Style

Or lazy Super Bowl style. Didn't care about the teams this year, so we put very little effort into the food {more free time!}, went to a party at someone else's house {no cleaning!} and I spent half the game hand-stitching my hanging sleeve on Two of Hearts.

Oh, and I pulled together a giveaway. You might want to check it out. You know, if you like free stuff.

{Finished} The Olivia Schnibble - went with fast quilting and completed it in less than an afternoon.

{BOM} Finished the last three for Saturday Sampler!

{Design Wall} And here they all are! I need 16 on point, so I'm starting by picking one from each colorway. I also worked on the math for the setting during the Super Bowl.

{Starburst Quilt Along} Laid out my block to start sewing...hmmm... I appear to have miscalculated something.

{Triple Zip Along} Bought my three zippers. Still being a complete chicken about putting it together.

{Cat Tails} Sorted out the colors I have and counted. I had to cut out one more red block, but this will leave me with eight blocks to make and 13 total.

{Boardwalk} I decided to use the remaining pink fat quarters for the setting triangles, so I cut those and used the leftovers to prep a couple blocks.

{Fifteen Minute Challenge/Rainbow Scrap Challenge} I slacked off in the beginning of the week, but when the RSC turned purple, I grabbed the box and got to sorting. Friday/Saturday was sorting, Sunday I cut the pieces for the RSC. All ready to be leaders/enders this month!

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces
UFO Sunday @ the Free Motion Quilting Project 
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times 
BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot 
Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story 
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Stash Blaster @ Prairie Sunrise
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ So Scrappy
Starburst Quilt Along @ Happy Quilting

End of Month Report - January

I am ridiculously far behind on blogging. But, that's because I had a ridiculously busy month!

Family: the husband is back from deployment and we are adjusting without any issues. It helps that we've done this ten times. Weekly spelling tests continue to be an issue, no matter how many times we've done them.

Running: I'm still not used to full marathon training. I don't know how people do this - I'm seriously TIRED by 7 p.m. every day. Less than 4.5 weeks till Half #1, and then I ease down to half training.

Adoption: Our I-600a was approved! Which was nerve-wracking. It's a government form that requires fingerprints within six months of the home study. Ever try getting fingerprints in Afghanistan? I've heard it's not so easy. Now we're just waiting to see how the new Korean regulations will delay things.

Wedding: I tried on bridesmaid dresses and am campaigning for the one that my sister said made me look "stupid skinny." I'm still not sure that's a compliment. My sister also found her dress.

Sewing: a couple of projects finished - one UFO, two new.

Fally-gyle - yes, I still need to post about this! To be fair, we've had crap weather and no sunshine for days.

Two of Hearts

And I made a Creeper pillow. Because I'm an awesome mom.

I planned to make 3 of the 9 remaining blocks for Saturday Sampler. I made all nine!

Wanted to finish off the ten blocks I had cut for Boardwalk. Done! Now I need to decide how many I want to have overall {the pattern is 27 blocks} and plan the cutting of the remaining fat quarters. {What? Plan?}

{NewFO} Cat Tails - Made steady progress of one set of cats per week.

{Rainbow Scrap Challenge} I can't find a name or a pattern for the calendar quilt, but it looks fairly simple. I'm not mitering my blocks, and I decided to go with a single fabric per block, with the same neutral in their centers and the sashing. Ten or so each month {okay, six this month...I'll catch up!}

The other thing I had planned was quilting Olivia. I did piece the back, but my knees yelled at me every time I thought about basting it. I finally did it today and it should be finished this weekend.

As for February...
1. Quilt Star Wall Hanging and Layer Cake Snowballs.
 
2. Pick 16 Saturday Sampler blocks to set on point and do that.

3. Figure out what I'm doing with Boardwalk and make at least ten blocks.

4. Keep up with one Cat Tail block each week.

Linked:
Nothing But UFOs
A Year of Finishes
Getting It Done
Year of the Finished Project
Just Three

Fresh Sewing Day @ Lily's Quilts
NewFO Challenge @ Cat Patches 
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ SoScrappy

Weekly Progress - Now With Husband!

And man, husbands slow down progress... Still, it's good to have him back. For one thing, I've been getting up at 6 am to run, so then I have the entire day to do other things! Like sit on the couch and complain about how much running hurts.

I did manage two finishes this week. Though both were nearly done last week, so it's not all that impressive that I managed to put binding on in the course of a week. Posts coming...soon. Along with a giveaway for 100 followers. I promise.

Fall-gyle

Two of Hearts

In other spurts of productiveness...

{Triple-Zip-Along} I cut out the main body fabric, making use of my newly-created string box. All the zipper pulls will be the same Dear Stella as the main body, because I had 2.5" strips leftover from binding, and this is a use-what-you-have project.

Still haven't decided if I'm using muslin or something else for the lining. And I need to buy zippers because I don't keep any on hand.

{Starburst Quilt Along} Flying geese made!

{Cat Tails} Block #4 is done, a bit late.

{Boardwalk} Catching up on the couple of blocks left for January. The little pieces on the strips of white a directional, so I chain piece them instead of leaving them as leaders/enders. Otherwise I forget which way they go!

{Saturday Sampler} First of the last three! Two and three are cut and well on their way to done.

{Design Wall} Sometimes I give up waiting for the right light.

I'm about to the point where I need to calculate the needed yardage to set the blocks on point and get this thing finished up!

{Fifteen Minute Challenge} Totally slacked this week. I shoved all the boxes back on the shelves with no organization, so that there was no fabric covering the bed when my husband got home. I swear I'm getting back to it this week!

Linked:
Fifteen Minute Challenge @ Life In Pieces
UFO Sunday @ the Free Motion Quilting Project 
Design Wall Monday @ Patchwork Times 
BOMs Away Mondays @ What A Hoot 
Fabric Tuesday @ Quilt Story 
WiP Wednesday @ Freshly Pieced
Stash Blaster @ Prairie Sunrise
Rainbow Scrap Challenge @ So Scrappy
Starburst Quilt Along @ Happy Quilting